Abstract For the first time, a novel approach combining additive manufacturing with laser shock peening was proposed and successfully implemented to create unique additively manufactured Stellite-6 cutting tools, introducing customization and flexibility to the tool-making industry while improving tribological performance. The compressive residual stress was increased from -325 to -559 MPa, corresponding to an increase in intensity of LSP from 3 to 7 GW/cm2, causing grain distortion and improving the hardness and wear performance of the as-printed Stellite-6 surface. Nano-indentation reveals the improvement in resistance to indenter penetration after applying LSP. The increase in H/E and H3/E2 by 148 and 31% respectively, at the LSP intensity of 7 GW/cm2, shows the wear resistance improvement. Progressive turning operation using AM and LSP-AM cutting tools was performed on mild steel, and machining performance and flank wear behaviour were compared with those obtained for commercially available HSS M2 cutting tools. The flank wear was found to be 332.1 μm in the case of the AM Stellite-6 tool, which was decreased by 11% in the case of the LSP-AM cutting tool. The tool life of the AM tool was found to be 138% higher than that of the HSS tool, and this improvement was further enhanced by 14% using LSP.
Singh et al. (Mon,) studied this question.